Terror suspect subjected to 'state-sanctioned torture' while held by CIA: lawyer

[JURIST] A lawyer for the first "high-value" Guantanamo Bay detainee to be allowed to meet privately with attorneys told AP Saturday that his client had been "subjected to state-sanctioned torture" in secret overseas CIA prisons. J. Wells Dixon [advocacy profile] has filed a federal court motion [text, PDF] seeking an order directing the US government to preserve evidence of the man's torture. The detainee, 27-year-old Pakistani Majid Khan [GlobalSecurity profile], is the only US resident among the 15 high-value detainees [official detainee profiles, PDF] at Guantanamo. Officials seized him in Pakistan in 2003 under allegations that he plotted to attack both the United States and Pakistan. The CIA held him in secret custody overseas until September 2006, when he was transferred to Guantanamo. Khan met with lawyers [press release] in October 2007. Khan's legal team says preservation of evidence of his torture could help show Khan had no ties to al-Qaida.

Wells' statement is not the first allegation of torture made in connection with Khan. In April, Khan's father submitted an affidavit to a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) convened to determine whether Khan was an "enemy combatant" [JURIST report]. In the affidavit, he wrote that "the Americans tortured him [Majid] for eight hours at a time, tying him tightly in stressful positions in a chair until his hands, feet and mind went numb." The CIA has denied the accusations and reiterated its position that the US does not torture suspects. AP has more.

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